Scores of police officers in the Western Cape had to go on duty without firearms last month, while others were unable to carry out their crime-fighting role.
This was after an "administrative glitch" prevented at least 80 police officers from Paarl and more than 60 from the rapid rail unit from doing their annual shooting practice.
This meant they were automatically declared unfit to use a gun, and their firearms were confiscated for more than a week. The affected officers were instructed not to go into communities to fight crime as a result.
Western Cape police spokesperson Brig Novela Potelwa described the "glitch" as an "unforeseen challenge" that had since been resolved. Shooting practice had resumed.
The Paarl police station, which has more than 280 staff members, was the worst affected.
But the failure to attend shooting practice meant the firearm permits of almost all the police officers assigned to keeping Cape Town's rail network safe expired in April.
Most of the officers were forced to remain in their police stations rather than go on patrol or respond to incidents unarmed, they said.
But some rail unit officers said they had been told that if they failed to patrol railway platforms, even though they were unarmed, they would lose their danger allowance of R400 a month.
One, who didn't want to be named, said: "It was probably the scariest experience for many of us. We had to work even though we were uncomfortable, as we didn't want to lose our money.
"We heard of people being robbed on trains, but couldn't do anything - we felt so helpless. Some of us had to guard the firearm safes, yet we were not armed ourselves," the officer said.
Policing expert Johan Burger of the Institute for Security Studies said the administrative failure, the result of "inexcusable incompetence", had put the safety of many South Africans in jeopardy.
Richard Mamabolwa, spokesperson for the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union, urged police management to swiftly "resolve their glitches" to ensure police officers were competent to go out and fight crime.
National police spokesperson Col Athlenda Mathe said policy dictated firearms must be confiscated from officers who had been declared incompetent "until such time that he/she can prove competency".
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